The Story of Anvil

thomasross20

I saw it as a lesson in delusion to be honest!

thecolourbox

I always liked Anvil, but I think overall I preferred Emu. His interview with Parkinson was the clincher

english_bob

thomasross20 said:

I saw it as a lesson in delusion to be honest!

Yep. It's hilarous until you remember it's a documentary about real people's actual lives. I could totally relate to their unwillingness to give up on playing music and their absolute refusal to see that they're just not going to make it big.

xSkarloey

I understand what people say about the deluded aspect.

I think overall though that although their artistic integrity was somewhat misplaced, as people they came across with quite a lot of dignity.

Philly_Q

The film is funny at times but I don't think they're really all that deluded, they've just naively clung onto their dreams a bit longer than most people do.

If you disregard their aspirations, in terms of what they actually do they're no different from 99% of people who play in bands but can't actually make a living from it.  And in fact they've been considerably more successful than most - 15+ albums, major tours... not bad at all really.

octatonic

thomasross20 said:

Can you believe I've never seen Spinal Tap...
OK, I need to watch both!

The Spinal Tap narrative is depressingly similar to that of any band I've been in that lasted more than a year or two.

Reverend

I actually saw them in the UK leg of the tour - which was not filmed - and the played an afternoon gig atbthe Underworld supporting a Pantera trilobite band.

John_P

Reverend said:

I actually saw them in the UK leg of the tour - which was not filmed - and the played an afternoon gig atbthe Underworld supporting a Pantera trilobite band.

Makes sense - Anvil have been going long enough to be called dinosaurs ;-) 

earwighoney

The documentary about Anvil is a great one.  

For those who liked that, the documentary about the band 'Pentagram' which is titled 'Last Days Here' is worth checking out. 

Btw, 'Pentagram' are an amazing band.  

Reverend

I used to do a Pentagram cover back in 1992

RobDavies

The film is great. 

 Anvil aren't.

duotone

Just watched it on Netflix.  Will have to check out what other albums that producer CT worked on.

Bucket

I have seen it and found it pretty depressing.

I remember them seeming so likeable and nice that I wanted to like their music far more than I really could, and feeling a bit bad about it.

RobDavies

Bucket said:

I have seen it and found it pretty depressing.

I remember them seeming so likeable and nice that I wanted to like their music far more than I really could, and feeling a bit bad about it.

Same here.... I think you probably had to be there at the time to really appreciate what they did. 

There are so many bands of the time that I still listen to.  My lad is really into his metal but when I played him Possessed, Venom and Celtic Frost, his reaction was, "this is really crap, how can you listen to this?" 

Bucket

RobDavies said:

There are so many bands of the time that I still listen to.  My lad is really into his metal but when I played him Possessed, Venom and Celtic Frost, his reaction was, "this is really crap, how can you listen to this?" 

I'm a metalhead too but that was really my reaction to the above bands as well, if I'm honest.

I do quite like some Venom - Bloodlust is a great tune, and the Prime Evil album they did with Tony Dolan replacing Cronos is quite good as well, but Possessed and Celtic Frost always rather eluded me.

roberty

I went to a premiere screening of this at Bloomsbury Blowing Lanes back in the day and Anvil played afterwards. The drummer told me, "playing drums is the best feeling in the world, better than sex". He must be having pretty rubbish sex. I don't remember much else apart from everyone being very tall

BloodEagle

Bucket said:

RobDavies said:

There are so many bands of the time that I still listen to.  My lad is really into his metal but when I played him Possessed, Venom and Celtic Frost, his reaction was, "this is really crap, how can you listen to this?" 

I'm a metalhead too but that was really my reaction to the above bands as well, if I'm honest.

I do quite like some Venom - Bloodlust is a great tune, and the Prime Evil album they did with Tony Dolan replacing Cronos is quite good as well, but Possessed and Celtic Frost always rather eluded me.

Venom are sort of entertaining because they are/were so shit, Celtic Frost and Possessed though - come one, To Mega Therion and Seven Churches are both essential. Goes to show how much the definition of 'metal' has changed over the last 25 years I suppose

Reverend

BloodEagle said:

Bucket said:

RobDavies said:

There are so many bands of the time that I still listen to.  My lad is really into his metal but when I played him Possessed, Venom and Celtic Frost, his reaction was, "this is really crap, how can you listen to this?" 

I'm a metalhead too but that was really my reaction to the above bands as well, if I'm honest.

I do quite like some Venom - Bloodlust is a great tune, and the Prime Evil album they did with Tony Dolan replacing Cronos is quite good as well, but Possessed and Celtic Frost always rather eluded me.

Venom are sort of entertaining because they are/were so shit, Celtic Frost and Possessed though - come one, To Mega Therion and Seven Churches are both essential. Goes to show how much the definition of 'metal' has changed over the last 25 years I suppose

For years the the older generation always always said "how can you listen  to that, it's just noise" as it was too extreme for them. 

We now have the reverse. Our generation say "how can you listen to that, it's too polite." 

PolarityMan

Reverend said:

I used to do a Pentagram cover back in 1992

Was it sign of the wolf or the ghoul? Love those 2.

PolarityMan

BloodEagle said:

Bucket said:

RobDavies said:

There are so many bands of the time that I still listen to.  My lad is really into his metal but when I played him Possessed, Venom and Celtic Frost, his reaction was, "this is really crap, how can you listen to this?" 

I'm a metalhead too but that was really my reaction to the above bands as well, if I'm honest.

I do quite like some Venom - Bloodlust is a great tune, and the Prime Evil album they did with Tony Dolan replacing Cronos is quite good as well, but Possessed and Celtic Frost always rather eluded me.

Venom are sort of entertaining because they are/were so shit, Celtic Frost and Possessed though - come one, To Mega Therion and Seven Churches are both essential. Goes to show how much the definition of 'metal' has changed over the last 25 years I suppose

I think we have a lot of pop metal now where you just take a chord progression and replace strumming with chugs and some fast programmed drums and call it a day. It's far less counter culture than it used to be.